Frances Perkins- Secretary of Labor

In 1933, President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed Frances Perkins as Secretary of Labor, making her the first woman to serve in a United States Cabinet. A trained social worker and reformer who had investigated factory conditions in New York, Perkins entered office during the depths of the Great Depression. She remained at the Department of Labor for the duration of Roosevelt's presidency, serving until 1945, longer than any Secretary of Labor before or since.

Perkins used her position to shape much of the New Deal's social legislation. She was a central architect of the Social Security Act of 1935 and helped secure measures establishing the minimum wage, the maximum workweek, and limits on child labor. Her appointment broke a long-standing barrier in the federal executive branch and demonstrated that women could hold and exercise major governmental authority, opening the way for later female Cabinet officers.